


After The End

by Warden935



Category: None - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:47:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 10,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24365299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warden935/pseuds/Warden935
Comments: 1





	1. Chapter 1

The human race truly is a disgusting plague. After we nuked our home, what did we do? We went to war again and destroyed what little we were able to create in the aftermath. The Federation, the Union, it’s all the same and yet we just couldn’t help ourselves. We blew it all up.

In the aftermath of The Purging, society was just beginning to stabilize again when the war broke out. The Federation promised us unity in the bleak fallout, and I believed it. Turns out they only wanted power. The Union also wanted “unity” and so the two factions started another pointless war until there truly was nothing left. 

God, do I hate humankind. Though I didn’t lose everything. I still have Katya and Rowan. Even if we were on opposite sides of the war, it’s all the same. Through the fires of the war, we were able to form a bond that would be everlasting. 

Even if we were the last 3 humans on earth, there would be no point in becoming the “new Adam and Eve”. More humans would only lead to more war and a third purging. Better to let the human race die with us and leave the Earth be. 

“Thomas!” I hear katya beckoning me from the other room, jolting me away from my thoughts. 

“Yea?” I reply, moving through where a wall used to be into the other room to see the black figure of her uniform rummaging through an old wooden desk. Or at least what I think is (or was) a desk, it’s hard to tell when it’s just a pile of splinters on the ground of a bombed out building. 

The red glowing goggles of her mask shift up to look at me as she holds up a bottle of something. “Look what I found.” She says with pride in her voice. 

I look closer and see that it’s a bottle of scotch. “Nice score.” I say, turning out of the room to the non-existent floor of the hallway. “Yo Rowan!” I say while cupping my right hand over my external speaker, “It’ll be dark soon!” I grab a cable with my left hand and start to descend. 

“Alright, I’m almost done!” he shouts back as I am descending through the floors of some ancient skyscraper. As I lower to the fifth floor, I see him walk out of a room and say “Hold on, I gotta lock up.” as he pretends to put an invisible key into the lock of the non-existent door. “Okay all good.” he says as he begins carrying a pack of supplies to the three cables in the gaping hole of the hallway floor. Rowan always finds a way to have a childlike charm in this godforsaken world. 

We make it to the bottom floor and start walking towards our camp. It’s not much, just a fire we set up in what I think was once a bookstore. Katya, Rowan and I start feeding what little books we can find still around into the fire before I pick up a green book that catches Rowan’s eyes. “Woah woah woah, Cap, you can’t burn that one!” he says while grabbing my arm. 

“For the last time, Rowan, I’m not a captain. That was before when we all got into a war that burned everything again.” At the mention of the war, the other two looked down with despair showing in their body language. 

“S-sorry, Thomas. Just a habit with the uniforms and all…” 

“Well it’s not like we choose to wear these horrific reminders of battle.” I say with spite in my voice. “These are the only things keeping us from dying due to the radiation.” Both Rowan and Katya look at each other and look down again. 

“Anyways, why don’t you want me to burn this book?” I ask, trying to release some of the tension in the room. 

“It’s just that…” began Rowan. “My father read that book to me when I was a child. It was my favorite, and I don’t want to burn the only thing that can remind me of him.” 

Katya and I look at each other, her luminescent red goggles meeting my glowing blue goggles as I sit down and open the book. “Why don’t we read it, for nostalgia then.” I say. 

“Yea, I’d like that.” said Rowan, obviously trying to choke back tears from the thought of everything and everyone he lost and would never see again. 

I strain my eyes to read the pages. I haven’t read an actual book in a very long time. I then begin as the other two look into the fire and listen. “In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit…” 

As the night went on, I kept reading until the other two fell asleep. It’s odd, feeling like a father again. I’m not even 10 years older than either of them but I feel like it’s my job to look after them. But I did lose my own children in the war and it was nice to have someone to look after. 

After I closed the book, I laid down on the ground and closed my eyes, hoping that someday this suffering would just end already.


	2. Chapter 2

Rays of light started to peak into the building, waking me up. _Morning already?_ I think to myself. I raise my head to see no light on the horizon. It’s still pitch black outside. _Where did that light come from?_ I wonder until I turn my head and see a barrel with a flashlight attachment pointed straight at Rowan’s head.

Before I can think, I jolt up and tackle the figure holding the gun. I hear the distinct sound of a knife unsheathing below me before two rifle barrels are pointed at the figure I’m holding. “You’re out of luck.” I say as I look down at the figure holding a knife, but then it says something unexpected. “Captain?” 

I look at the figure to see the white respirators and blue goggles of a Federation soldier, or at least what used to be. I look up at the red glowing circles of Rowan and Katya's eyes staring down from the darkness where the light of the gun on the floor can’t reach. 

The white figure shoves me off and points the knife up at the two figures above it as it says “Captain, what are you doing with the enemy?” 

“Wait a minute…” I say as I take a closer look at the uniformed figure. “Anya?” I say in surprise. “Private Anya?” 

“Of course.” she says as if I was stupid or something. “Now what are you doing with Union scum?” 

I pinch the bridge of my mask as I say “Anya, the war is over. Both sides lost. It was a pointless war that only destroyed everything again. Let it go.” in a pleading tone. 

“Never, they killed my brother.” She replied with murder in her voice. 

“ANYA!” I shout in a voice that makes everyone jump. “We all lost someone in that war! We’ve all suffered just as you have! The Union and Federation are gone! Now will you put down the knife!” 

She looks at me as she slowly lowers her arms before Katya grabs the knife from her. “We don’t have the luxury of picking factions. Both sides were the same. Look where that useless war got us. The only thing we now have is each other. These two are with me and won’t hurt you. The war is over.” 

I hear her start to weep on the ground as Katya hands me Anya’s knife. “I’m sorry.” she began through sobs. “It’s just that I found you guys sleeping and couldn’t forgive them for what they did.” 

“I know, I know.” I say as I start to hold her. “But the war is over. It wasn’t them who killed Alex, it wasn’t them.” 

We sat there as Rowan and Katya lowered their rifles. The morning sun rose over the horizon, revealing a sickly green tint to the landscape that once was home to thousands of people. I heard stories of mornings that were a soothing orange or purple, but after the radiation, there was only the ghastly green of death in the sky. 

After a while, Anya asked how I came to know the two Union soldiers. And so I began telling her about the battle. 

“It was near the end of the war I think. We were fighting in some city block when a shell hit the building I was in. The building collapsed on top of me and when I woke up, I found I only had a minor concussion from hitting my head.” 

“I heard some yelling from deeper in the building. I started to climb through the rubble before I heard someone scream in pain below me. I realized that I had stepped on them and began to dig down. After about 15 minutes of digging, I saw the red glow of a Union helmet moving. I moved to grab my rifle until I thought about what this war actually was. The Federation told us that we were fighting for unity, but if that were really true, then we wouldn’t be fighting a faction that wanted to ‘conquer’ us. I mean, we were also trying to conquer them for the same reasons as they were.” 

“I decided that I would put the war aside and help this person. I grabbed their arm and pulled them out of the rubble but then they started yelling someone else’s name. ‘Katya’ he shouted. I followed him until I heard another voice, this time female.” 

“We both dug in the rubble until her foot emerged and we pulled her out of there. Neither of them seemed to be bothered that I was wearing a Federation uniform. They told me that they were forcefully drafted into the Union army and that they didn’t see any difference in the two factions. We started moving towards our lines but that’s when it happened.” 

“We saw a great mushroom rise up in the sky in the East, and then another West of it. Then more and more nukes going off one after another until the entire horizon was filled with nothing but thick clouds of death. We then knew that both the Federation and Union were obliterated. We looked around the battlefield but there were only dead bodies. Apparently while we were trapped in that building, the fighting had stopped with no survivors. And so we’ve been trying to scavenge through this city for food and supplies ever since, since there was nowhere else to go.” 

Once I finished, Anya just looked off into space before saying. “You’re lucky. The battle got a whole lot worse once your building came down. Once we all thought you were dead, Lieutenant Prong decided a full assault on the Union position was necessary.” 

“Prong always was suicidal.” I said before she continued. 

“During the assault, I froze up with fear and just curled up in a ditch. Once I stopped hearing the gunfire, I emerged to see everyone dead, with Lieutenant Prong holding a knife in the chest of a Union captain with the captain doing the same to him.” 

“Captain always was hardcore.” said Rowan distantly. 

“After I thought I was the only one left alive, I started travelling back to camp, but then I saw the mushroom clouds and gave up hope. I began wandering the city aimlessly until I saw your flashlights in the building last evening.” 

Rowan, Katya, and I just looked at each other. I moved towards Anya and said “What matters now is that we aren’t alone. We need to stick together, no matter the uniform.” 

I then started to gather my stuff saying “It’s time we moved out. We should move on to a new sector, we’ve been around here for a while.” And with that, the rest of them got up. Rowan helped Anya to her feet and while Anya was tense, she didn’t resist.


	3. Chapter 3

As we moved through the city, it was dead silent. No birds chirping, no wind rushing by, no voices talking, just the sound of rubble crunching beneath our boots and our guns clattering on our backs. I pulled out my busted up colt that was in my bag to look at it.

“What’s that?” asked Anya, trying to break the silence. 

“Oh it’s just a pistol that my father gave me before he passed away. It’s the only thing I have from him but it was crushed in the battle where I met Rowan and Katya.” I stared at the dented barrel as we marched onwards. “If we ever come across a gun store, I’m gonna try and get replacement parts for it, but we haven’t been able to find one yet.” 

“Oh…” said Anya with a timid voice. “I think I saw one deeper in the city, but it was too difficult for me to get to, so I didn’t check it out.” 

“Well, we’re running low on ammunition anyways.” I say, motioning for Rowan and Katya to stop. “Where did you see it?” 

“Um…” said Anya. “In that direction.” as she pointed towards the part of the city submerged in water. That was where the original bomb hit and that whole area is caved in, we just call it the lake. 

“I see…” I said with a disappointed tone. “Well nevermind then.” 

“Come on, Thomas,” began Rowan. “I know how much that pistol means to you. And like you said, we don’t got a lotta ammo. I don’t mind hopping from rooftop to rooftop to get there, I’m sure it’ll be fun.” 

“Nothing ever seems to dampen your spirit, does it Rowan.” I say with a smile cracking underneath my helmet’s mask. 

“No, sir.” 

I immediately tense up at being referred to as a superior again. “Oh I mean, Thomas…” Rowan says, immediately realizing his mistake. 

“No, it’s fine.” I say, trying to push the thoughts of the war out of my mind. “It was a mistake.” 

“Anyways…” says Katya. “We should probably head to one of the upper floors of this building here to hop onto the roof of one of the buildings in the lake.” She points up to one of the skyscrapers nearby. 

“Good idea, lets go.” I say as I start walking towards the entrance, leaving my thoughts behind. 

As we ascended the flights of stairs to get high enough, we found a window washer scaffold hanging off the side of the building. “Ah, just what we need.” said Katya. She grabbed one of the cables and sliced it with her knife, cutting it off of the scaffold. She then said “Beat you guys over there.” as she jumped through the window (I guess just gaping hole now) and started swinging towards a building sunken in the lake. 

As she made it on top of the roof, she said “What are you guys waiting for?” The rest of us did the same with the other cables of the scaffolding and swung over, but Rowan didn’t make it far enough. 

He started swinging backwards and clung to the cable with all his strength. “Thomas!” he screamed as he swung towards the skyscraper again. 

“Don’t panic.” I shouted to him, trying to calm him down. “Just use your body weight to swing back over here.” 

“Okay!” he shouted back. He started shifting his body weight until he froze and clinged to the cable tighter. “Thomas! Something’s in the water below me!” he shrieked. 

“Calm down, Rowan.” I shouted. “There’s nothing in there, it’s just your imagination. Nothing here is still alive besides us. The nukes made sure of that. Now come on.” 

“Yea, you’re right.” he said, nodding his head as if trying to convince himself of this fact. “Here I come!” He started shifting his weight again and this time it was enough to get him across. When I grabbed him to pull him off the cable, he looked back at the water below and said “Did you see that? I swear I just saw something rise out of the water!” 

“It’s probably just a metal beam poking out.” I said, “Now lets, continue.” 

After a while of hopping from rooftop to rooftop, and of Rowan constantly checking the water below, we found something odd. There looked to be wooden planks laid across the gaps between roofs almost as if someone laid them there to aid in crossing them. “Is someone still living around here?” asked Anya. 

“I don’t know.” I replied, looking around. “Look, over here.” I said, moving towards what looked to be a camp. I walked across the wooden planks and came to an area under a sunshade with a fire pit filled with wet ash and some supplies like a sleeping bag and rifle laid out. As I examined the rifle, it looked to be in good condition and there were a few boxes of ammo for it laying around, so why would someone just leave it behind? “Hello?” I shouted as I started looking for the owner, but no one was around. 

“Something’s not right, why would someone leave this place with all their stuff behind?” I said to the group as we started to wonder. We fanned out across the nearby rooftops and found a few skeletons here and there, but those obviously died when the first purging happened, this camp was set up after the fact. 

“Thomas!” shouted Rowan as the rest of us ran over to see what he found. As Anya, Katya, and I gathered round, we saw what Rowan was looking at. At his feet was a Federation helmet, it’s blue goggled broken and white side slashed open by something sharp. 

“This definitely is not good.” said Katya. “Something is not right, but everything is supposed to be dead, what could have done this?” She looked towards me for answers. 

Right before I was about to open my mouth, there was a horrific screeching noise coming from below us. It sounded almost like a metallic clanging of some metal machine shifting and moving around. We all hid underneath a makeshift metal hut that someone had put up here before us as we heard something emerging from the waters below. 

We heard the splashing of water falling back into the lake as it emerged and the metallic clanking of robotic limbs moving. What we saw climb onto the rooftop was like something out of a nightmare. It had 3 large metallic limbs as sharp as knives and a slim chromatic body with a piercing green eye in the center of what I can only call its bulbous head. 

It looked from left to right with a slow turn of its head as if scanning for lifeforms. “What is that thing?” Asked Anya. 

“It must be one of those ancient death machines.” I said. “I’ve heard stories of nightmarish mechanical horrors the old world powers created to fight their wars before taking the nuclear option, but those were just ghost stories used to make us go to sleep. I never actually believed them!” I whispered with a panicked tone. 

“Well obviously, they’re real and they’re scary as hell.” Said Rowan. “I told you something was in the water!” 

“Now’s not the time, Rowan.” I said, trying not to freak out. 

As the alien green sensor moved towards where we were hiding, we all dropped down even lower and fell silent. We could see the green light of its gaze fall still above us almost as if it was staring right at us and knew exactly where we were hiding. I could see Rowan’s arms covering his head almost as if he was about to break. I placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him and when he jolted his head up to look at me, I nodded as if to say ‘We are going to be alright’. 

This seemed to calm his nerves enough to keep still. After what seemed like an eternity, the green gaze of the machine moved on and we heard its loud metallic limbs lumbar back into the water. 

Slowly, we emerged from our hiding spot to continue our journey to the gun store. Surely there would be something there to fight off this abomination because Anya’s shotgun and certainly not our rifles would do the job. 

As we started to walk across the wooden planks to the next building as quietly as we could, Rowan started to move towards the fire pit behind. “Rowan!” I whispered, “What are you doing!” 

“There’s ammo back there.” he said. “I’m gonna go get it real quick!” 

“Are you crazy!” I said. “The gun store is right over there, let’s just make it over there!” as I pointed to a building 2 buildings away. 

“Just hang on.” said Rowan. When Anya and Katya were across the makeshift bridge, Rowan made it to the boxes of ammo. He started to shove them into his bag but that’s when he dropped a box and the bullets went everywhere with hundred of little “Clang!” falling on the floor. We heard the metallic scratch of the death machine started to emerge again. I jumped into a pile of rubble but Rowan was out in the open when the creature climbed onto the roof. 

All we heard was Rowan’s screams for help as it dragged him back into the depths below. Katya and Anya got up to try and save him but I stopped them. “I can’t lose you too.” I said. 

“But he’s going to die!” shouted Katya trying to fight my grasp on her. 

“I know. That’s why I’m going in after him.” I said as she stepped back as if to say ‘Are you crazy?’. 

I sprinted over to where the gun store was and found exactly what I needed. There were two grenades in the back of the store. I grabbed them both and lept out the window into the water. I turned on my goggle’s night vision but I could still only see about 10 feet in front of me. There was nothing but the green murky water until I saw a glowing neon green eye moving straight towards me. As it approached, I could see more and more of its body until I saw Rowan being dragged lifelessly by a metal dagger stuck in his side. I pulled the pin on one of the grenades and let go of it right as the machine was about to hit me. I swam to the side and was able to grab Rowan from its clutches before swimming away. 

“Come on, come on!” I said as I swam higher and higher. “Gotta get away!” I knew exactly what would happen if you were near a grenade underwater. Some people think that you should jump into the water to lessen the effect of a grenade explosion, but in reality it makes it a whole lot worse. The air around a grenade compresses, but water is a lot less compressible than air, so when the shockwave hits you, the shock can cave in your lungs, and this is definitely not good. 

Right as I emerge at the surface and toss Rowan’s body onto the building, the grenade explodes and I fall unconscious as the shock wave hits me. 

When I wake up, I see Anya and Katya looking over me. Luckily, I was far enough away from the explosion to not suffer any permanent damage, but I was knocked out for about 10 seconds before the two of them pulled me out of the water. 

As I jolt up to see if Rowan is okay, the death machine emerges from the water again. Of course it didn’t die. While it has no lungs or organs to compress, it’s framing certainly is caved in a lot. 

I jump to my feet and lunge at the mechanical beast with my remaining grenade as I pull the pin and slam it into its glowing eye, breaking the glass with the force of it being shoved in, and fall back into the water. 

The grenade goes off right in its eye and it falls into the water with a loud SPLASH. 

I pull myself back out of the water to check on Rowan. He’s bleeding pretty badly but nothing serious was pierced. I start wrapping his wounds in gauze and trying to stabilize him. 

After a while, I finally manage to stabilize him and I hear a strange beeping coming from the water. I turn around to see a little green light pulsating from where the death machine’s head used to be. I take a closer look and see what looks to be some sort of device attached to the circuitry. 

I pull it out and turn around to show the others but it stops blinking. I slowly turn back around and the device starts to beep again, increasing in speed the more I turn back to the East. 

I look at the strange device and see something printed on it. “TODESMASCHINEN EINHEIT 184”. It seems to be in German but I can’t read German. One thing is for sure though, this device probably points to somewhere important.


	4. Chapter 4

By the time Rowan woke up, we had looted what was left of the gun store. Unfortunately there were no more explosives, but I was able to find the replacement parts I needed for my colt 45. I was sitting down next to him working on getting the replacements fitted into the gun when he sat up to look at me.

“Thomas?” he asked with a dizzied tone. “What happened?” 

“You missed all the fun, that’s what happened.” I said as I looked at him. “You feeling alright?” 

“Yea, yea. I just got this stabbing pain in my side…” He trailed off as he looked down at his wound and saw the bandages around his stomach with a red bloody circle on the left side of it. “Oh.” was all he could get out before flopping down and grunting a low “Ow.” 

He suddenly jolted back up with a worried look. “Thomas! Where is the death machine!” he asked in a panicked tone while looking all around as if the sky was filled with demons. 

“Right there.” I said calmly as I pointed at the mechanical body of the headless machine floating in the water. 

Rowan seemed to calm down a bit at the sight of its lifeless form. “So… you killed it?” 

“Well you can’t exactly kill something that was never alive.” I said as I continued to work on my colt. “But it's non-functional so you don’t have to worry about it chopping us up anymore.” I looked up at him as I grabbed something from my bag. “And then there’s this.” I say as I show him the pulsating device I found in the death machine. 

“What is it?” Rowan asked, looking at it with wonder and curiosity. 

“Not sure.” I said plainly. “But it seems to be pointing towards something. There’s nothing for us out here anymore so I thought we might as well find out what it leads to.” I held the device towards the East to show him how it started to pulsate faster. 

“Alright, seems legit. What…” Rowan started looking around as if he’d lost something. “Where’s my rifle?” 

“You see that’s the thing…” I said as I presented him what remained of his gun. “It was kinda… slashed by the machine.” 

He took both pieces of it. The receiver and the barrel. It was completely cut in two. “What am I gonna use?” he asked with a disappointed tone. 

“Well, that’s the good news.” I said standing up, holding out my hand to help Rowan up to his feet too. “We found a Remington 700 for you with 4 boxes of ammunition. It may not be your old M16, but it has a pretty decent scope and has far better range.” 

“Well, looks like I’m a sniper then. I was a pretty good shot with one of these when hunting as a kid.” he said, trying to make the best of the situation. 

“That’s the Rowan I know. Now, let's go meet with the others to plot our next route to find whatever this thing is pointing to.” I say as we start making our way to the rooftop. 

When we made it to the roof, Katya ran over and hugged Rowan. She pulled away and held his dark masked face in her hands. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, you hear me.” she said in a stern voice before pulling him in for another hug. 

“So…” said Anya, walking over to talk to me. “What’s next, Thomas?” 

“We’re headed East. We gotta find out what’s out there.” I say, looking off into the distance. 

“What do you think we’ll find?” she asked as she turned her head as if to try and peer through the blue goggles of my mask to try and read my expression. 

“Don’t know. Maybe a shelter with survivors, maybe a lab with more monstrosities. Or maybe just another graveyard, but we can’t just sit here and die without trying to find out.” 

She nods and looks East with me, as if understanding exactly what I mean. Rowan and Katya also look East to the rising sun and we all just sit there, taking in the misty green tint of the horizon. It’s funny, I usually hate the green tint of the radiation, but now it seems almost soothing, even nostalgic. We stand there, the white soldiers of the Federation and the black soldiers of the Union, once enemies, we now stand together ready to face whatever lies ahead.


	5. Chapter 5

As the four of them walked on a cracked and decimated road, Anya looked at Thomas and saw the same brave leader that she followed into battle before. That strong and determined captain that reminded her of her older brother Alex.

She was only 16 when Alex had enlisted in the Federation Army. She wanted to be just like her big brother, fighting for unity and peace for what was left of the human race. 

When Alex finally left for war, Anya pleaded with him not to leave her behind. “Why do you need to fight?” She said with tears in her eyes. “What difference will one person make?” 

“Anya,” said Alex, “even the smallest person can change the future. And I want a future where we can live in peace and security.” And with that, he was gone. Off to war to fight for something he thought was right. 

When Anya was old enough, she joined the Federation Army and requested that she be placed under the command of her brother Alex. The bravest man she ever knew. 

The army personnel looked at her with sad eyes. “I’m sorry miss… but the Captain was killed in battle just a few weeks ago.” 

Anya’s world shattered before her. How could this happen? Her brother. Alex. Is dead. All she ever wanted to do was be like Alex, to fight by his side and be just as fearless as him. But that was all gone now. 

“Put me in the company he led.” She demanded. “I want to make those Union bastards pay for what they did.” She held back the tears, trying to stay strong for Alex. No matter what, she would avenge her brother. 

When she finally made it into the Federation Army, she was put under the command of Thomas, the new captain. The way he walked, the way he talked, the way he was so determined, reminded Anya of Alex. 

When her new squad mates looked at her, they started to laugh. “What are you gonna do pip squeak? Whack the Unis’ knees?” 

While she was small for her age, she was full of revenge and was determined to fight the Union Army even if it killed her. But before her bullies could continue, the Captain walked up. 

“She’s gonna blast them.” He said. “Just like the rest of you are. There isn’t a height requirement for firing an M16. Besides, even the smallest person has the power to change the future.” 

Anya looked up at Thomas with surprise. That was exactly what Alex had said to her the last time they saw each other. She would follow this new captain into battle no matter what, because that’s what Alex would want her to do. 

Throughout her time in the Federation Army, Thomas would always make sure that all of his soldiers were alright, and never left a soldier behind, even running into gunfire to save a comrade who was shot in the leg. Alex might be dead, but Thomas would be her guiding light in this war. 

For the entirety of the war, she ran into battle with a ferocity and thirst for revenge that gained her the respect of her peers. But then that fateful battle brought it all down. 

When she saw that building come down on Thomas, she broke down. First Alex and now her beloved captain, gone. In the charge ordered after Thomas’s supposed death, she tried to fight on but just froze, not knowing what to do. 

Her guiding light had died out and now she had no one to look to, so she shut down completely until everyone and everything around her was dead. When the battle was over, she buried the bodies of every single one of her comrades before trying to make her way back to camp, before the second reckoning happened. 

After there truly was nothing and no one left for her, she wandered the city aimlessly, just wanting something to kill her, but everything was truly dead and gone at that point. She thought about taking her shotgun to her head and finally giving up until she saw a light flash in the dusk of night. 

She looked to where she saw the light and saw three flashlights flashing. Then she heard it. “Thomas!” One of the people in the skyscraper in the distance definitely said Thomas. Could this be her Thomas? Her captain? Her guiding light? She ran towards the building with the flashlights but by the time she was able to make it to them, she saw two Union soldiers sitting by a fire. 

Before she could get a good look, she hid. She would wait until they were asleep to get her revenge. For Alex. For Thomas. Every single Union bastard would pay for the lives that they took from her, and not a single one would be spared from her wrath. 

When they went to sleep, she snuck into the bombed out building and pointed her shotgun at one of them. 

Suddenly, she was tackled by something. She drew her knife, ready to cut whoever got in the way of her revenge, but she looked up and saw a Federation captain. Her captain. Thomas. The one who protected her and all of his men. 

Why was he working with these Union filth? She couldn’t understand. Why? Why would Thomas work with the very enemy that ripped Alex away from her? 

“It wasn’t them who killed Alex.” Thomas said. “It wasn’t them.” 

After the rush of emotions flooded her mind, Anya broke down. The Federation and the Union might be the same, but Alex died for nothing then. Every soldier she knew in the Federation Army died for nothing. 

“That’s the thing about war.” Thomas would tell her later. “Pointless wars get good people killed for no reason.” 

While this new Thomas seemed defeated and haunted by the war, she could still see the care and determination in him to keep his men alive, and for this, she would follow him until the end. For Alex’s sake.


	6. Chapter 6

After a long and uneventful day of marching East, the group decided to make camp at a gas station. Rowan’s feet collapsed below him and he started coughing. Katya ran over to him to help him up.

“I’m Fine, I’m fine.” he said, but also allowing Katya to help him to his feet. Katya had always helped him when he was in need, no matter what. That’s what he appreciated most about her. 

When Rowan was 19, he had been drafted into the war and shoved into the Union Army. He didn’t see the need for this war, but he would do what he had to do. Life in the army was miserable. It seemed like he was surrounded by zealots for a non-existent cause. Rowan just wanted to live a quiet life. And that’s when he met Katya. 

One night, sitting in a trench by himself, a woman not much older than him sat next to him. “You seem like the only sane person around here.” she said without turning her head to him, just laying back against the trench wall. 

He looked at her as if she got the wrong person, but said nothing. Then she spoke again. “They whisk us away to fight in some useless war and it seems like everyone besides you is overzealous to go kill some fellow humans. I despise this war.” 

With that, Rowan could get on board with. Finally someone who understood him. If nothing else, this war brought one good thing into his life and that was Katya. 

Over the course of the war, Rowan and Katya kept on talking. About their homes that they missed, about their dreams of leaving the Union Army, about their dreams of not getting blown up today. They only had each other to talk about these things with, because everyone else was dead set on killing some Feds. 

When some superior tried to punish him for not killing prisoners or not shooting a Fed running in the back, Katya would always defend him. “We are human beings.” she would say, “Not animals.” She was someone he could put his trust in. 

Then one day, the two of them were out on patrol together, clearing a building. They looked in separate rooms and Rowan saw a Federation captain with a rifle raised, pushing into the building. “Shoot.” he thought as he started making his way back to Katya, but then that’s when an artillery shell hit the building. 

The entire structure came down on top of them, and Rowan was knocked out. When he awoke, he was trapped under what was at least five feet of rubble, completely unable to move. He shouted for Katya but couldn’t hear her. 

After about an hour of shouting for someone to come, he felt even more weight on him. Even more of the building must have come down and fallen on top of him, but then he heard rubble start to move. It sounded like digging. Was someone trying to dig him out? 

After 15 minutes of digging, he saw light again. He looked up to see his saviour, and saw the same Federation captain reaching down to pull him out. He put forth his arm, which was the only thing he could get loose, and the captain pulled him up. 

When he was finally free, he immediately started calling Katya’s name. He might be safe but it wouldn’t matter if Katya wasn’t. The captain looked a bit confused standing there, but once they heard Katya’s voice inside the rubble, he started helping. 

They kept digging in that rubble until Katya’s foot emerged. He dug around it more until he could get a good grasp on her leg and pulled. Katya screamed in anguish but the both of them wouldn’t stop until she was finally free. 

When she was finally out, Rowan hugged her and looked up at the Federation captain and said “Thank you.” 

The war left it’s scars on everyone, but none more than Thomas, but Thomas kept on going to make sure all of them were safe, and because Thomas refused to give up on them, Rowan would not give up on Thomas.


	7. Chapter 7

Katya looked over Rowan as he slept, making sure he was okay. He seemed to be coughing a lot lately after the attack at the lake. Could he be sick? She couldn’t handle losing another person she cared about to sickness.

Back when Katya was still a teen, her father was drafted into the Union Army as a medic. He was one of the only people around that had tried to find whatever medical documents and books he could get his hands on, effectively making him as much a doctor as anyone after the bombs dropped. 

He didn’t want to leave his family behind, but he had no choice but to comply with the draft. 

Even back then, Katya could see that it was pointless to wage these wars against other humans to accomplish nothing but more death. 

Soon after her father was taken to the front lines, her mother fell ill. Her father, the closest thing her settlement had to a doctor, was gone and there was no one to care for her mother. 

Her mother’s condition deteriorated worse and worse until news came back from the frontlines of her father. He had been killed, shot by a Federation sniper. 

Katya’s mother seemed to lose the will to continue after hearing the fate of the love of her life, and died soon after, leaving Katya with nothing and no one. 

She didn’t resent the Federation for what they did, that was just war. Pointless war. Human kind can never just get along, it has to wage pointless wars and get good men like her father killed. 

Years later, she herself was drafted into the Union Army. “What an honor it will be to fight for your nation” they said, but she knew it was all a lie. 

When she got to the frontline, she was surrounded by what seemed to her as insane zealots believing in a cause that wasn’t real. She didn’t even know why they were fighting, just that people were getting killed. And that’s when she saw a young soldier in her platoon sitting in the trench. 

Everyone else was crazy about killing the Feds, but this man seemed distraught at the fact that he was on a battlefield. She walked up to him and just sat down, conveying that she too didn’t want to be here. 

She learned that the man’s name was Rowan. She liked the sound of that name, it had a uniqueness to it. As they talked, they grew closer and found something to hold onto in each other. 

Rowan wasn’t the most dominant male, so some of the other soldiers would often pick on him, but Katya would always defend him. Why should he get made fun of for not enjoying the slaughtering of humans? 

One day while Katya and Rowan were patrolling a building, it came down on them. She got stuck under a mountain of rubble for hours until she was finally pulled out by someone. 

When she could finally see who it was, she saw that it was Rowan and… she looked up to see blue goggles staring at her from the white figure of a Federation captain. 

She was still in too much shock to say anything, but Rowan just hugged her. She wanted to thank the Federation captain for helping rescue her, but Rowan thanked him for her. 

Even though she didn’t know this stranger and was on opposite sides of the war, he still rescued her. And for that, she would be eternally grateful.


	8. Chapter 8

When the group got up the next day, Rowan seemed to be feeling better. He was walking on his own and wasn’t coughing as much. This brought no end of relief to Thomas’ heart.

As they traveled onward, they came to the ruins of a music store. Everything seemed to be in ruins, except for a single acoustic guitar. Rowan brought it over and asked “Does anyone know how to play guitar?” 

Thomas came over and said “I used to know how to play.” 

“Really?” asked Rowan. “Can you play something for us?” 

Thomas looked at the guitar with a certain nostalgia. He hadn’t played the guitar in some time. He sat down and started to pluck the strings and turn the pegs to get it in tune. Then he started to play a soft melancholy song that he’d once played for his children. 

“Papa, can the Federation really make the world like it was before?” asked his son, Aaron, with hope in his eyes. 

“Let’s hope so.” said Thomas as he kissed Aaron’s head. “Now, it’s time for you two to get some sleep.” 

“But Papa, I want to hear another song.” said his daughter, Isabella. 

“Another?” said Thomas, pretending to look shocked. “But your mother thinks you two have already been up long enough.” 

“Please?” they both wined in unison. 

“Alright, fine.” he said, sitting back down on Aaron’s bed. He picked up his guitar and started strumming again, playing a soft melancholy song until both of them fell asleep. 

He quietly placed his guitar down and walked into the other room to meet his wife. “Are they finally asleep?” she asked. 

“Yea.” said Thomas, going to hug her. 

“Do you have to leave?” she said, looking at him with sorrow in her eyes. 

“I do, to help give our children a better future.” he responded with a soft yet determined tone. 

“They’re gonna miss you, ya know.” she said. 

“I know, but I have to. Goodbye.” and with that, he put on his officer’s cap and walked out of that run down building. He made his way to the Federation Army encampment on the edge of their settlement. 

A little while after he was sent to the front lines, he received word that his home was gone. They found an undetonated bomb that was triggered by the shifting of the rubble around it. The entire place went up in flames. 

Thomas was devastated, his family, his home, everything… was gone. He put all his work into fighting the war to bring about the future that he wanted for his children. 

He rose the ranks and was made captain, getting a reputation for his tenacity and determination to never leave a man behind. His new family would be his company and he wouldn’t let what happened to his last family happen again. 

But throughout the war, he saw the Federation commit atrocity after atrocity. Killing prisoners, mowing down civilians opposed to their occupation, the destruction of precious resources just so that the Union couldn’t get their hands on it. It made Thomas begin to doubt what he believed in. 

Then that fateful day, the building came down on him and he heard the voice of Rowan calling for help. When he saw the red glow of the Union soldier, he made a decision. He would choose his humanity over the Federation. 

And when his second family was lost, he was determined to not let his third family fall to the same fate as the others. They chose to follow him and he would do everything in his power to save them.


	9. Chapter 9

After some days of traveling, we came to a very large, yet squat building. It seemed to have five sides and was in shambles. As we came closer to it, I saw another one of the death machines, though this one only had two legs and was much bulkier than the one that had impaled Rowan. It had two hulking arms with barrels replacing the hands and giant magazines protruding from the forearms. The light from its single blue eye pierced the darkness of dusk as it seemed to patrol around the perimeter of the building.

I checked the green pulsating device in my hand to see which way to go. It led in the direction of the great building. _God, please don’t let this lead into that building._ I thought as I looked at the giant machine patrolling it. 

“Okay.” I whispered to the other three. “We’re gonna go around the perimeter of this building here to go further East. Don’t get spotted by that thing.” 

Anya, Rowan, and Katya nodded their heads and picked up their guns. We started to crawl on the ground, going around the right side of the building. When we made it about half way, I looked up to see if any more of those death machines were around. I regretted peeking my head up almost immediately. 

There were three more patrolling this side of the building. _Not good._ I thought as I pretended not to see them and continued leading the group. It would do no good to worry them with this information. All that we needed to do was get around the building and continue East. 

As we got to the other side of the building, I brought out the device again. It wasn’t producing any light. 

_Stupid Thomas. How could you break it? Now what are we going to do?_ I thought as I turned around to face the others, but then it started blinking again. _Oh no._

It was pointing towards the five sided building, and we had to go through those death machines to get inside. I peeked my head up over some rubble to get another look at the building. There were four patrolling this side. 

“Okay.” I said, trying to not show the panic in my voice. “It looks like we’re finally here. We just gotta get into that building.” 

The three of them peeked their head over the rubble to see the four death machines lumbering in front of the building. “Are you serious?” said Katya in a worried tone. “Just one of those death machines almost killed Rowan!” 

“Well there’s no other way.” I said, trying to sound as calm as possible. “We all agreed that we have to find out what this thing was pointing towards.” 

While they all shifted nervously, Anya said “Okay, let's do it.” and that seemed to give the other two the courage to agree. 

We started to crawl through the debris until Rowan started to cough again. At first it was just a little but then uncontrollably. His face fell onto the ground as he stopped moving. “Rowan!” Katya said with distress evident in her voice. 

She lunged herself over to him and held his motionless figure in her hands. “Wake up, Rowan!” she said with both sadness and terror in her voice. Then we heard mechanical stomping coming towards us. 

I looked up to see the death machines lurching towards us at full speed. This was it, we’re done for. One I could attempt to fight off but not four at the same time and with all of us exposed. I’m sorry Rowan. I’m sorry Katya. I’m sorry Anya, I put us in this death trap of a mission and now we’re all going to die. 

But that’s when I heard a strange noise. It sounded like… an engine of some kind. I looked up from the direction it came from to see two black things racing our way from the building. I think my father once told me what these things were called. Humvees? Some kind of vehicle the military would use back when they still had cars. But when I looked back to the sky, I could see the great mechanical foot of one of the machines coming down on me. 

I tried to plead for my life with the soulless machine but then one of the vehicles stopped right behind me and I felt someone grab me from behind and pull me inside.


	10. Chapter 10

Once I was pulled inside the vehicle, I looked up to see a bunch of faces wearing clear gas masks looking at me. I could see Anya was pulled into the car on the other side. “Drive!” shouted one of the men looking over me.

“Rowan! Katya!” I shouted, trying to get out. 

Someone pushed me back down and said “Sir, they’re in the other humvee. They’re going to be fine.” 

I looked out the back window of the humvee and saw the giant death machines chasing after us. They were about to catch up when we drove into the five sided building. They just… stopped. They paused for a minute and then started patrolling the perimeter again like nothing happened. 

“What the hell is going on?” I say, looking at the people in the vehicle around me. 

“Sir, we’ll explain everything once we get into the basement.” said one of them, putting his hand up to try and calm me down. I stayed calm and tried not to make things more difficult than they had to be. 

The vehicle drove down a descending spiral of a concrete area with a lot of run down cars inside. After it reached the bottom, we drove into a more fortified area and some people closed a gate behind our two vehicles. 

Once the gate was closed, the people stepped outside of the humvee and… removed their masks. Rowan, Katya, Anya and I stepped out and we must have looked like we saw a ghost because these people could tell we were shocked at what we saw. 

“Oh you can take off your masks now, there’s no radiation in here.” said a woman as she took off her own. 

The four of us just sort of looked at each other as we began to remove our masks. It hadn’t occurred to me until that point that I had never seen any of their faces. We always just lifted the bottom of our masks just long enough to get food and water in before closing them back up to reduce radiation exposure as much as possible. 

Katya had jet black hair that was all over the place. Not to be unexpected from wearing that mask for this long. She had tanned skin almost the color of a dull bronze. In all the time I’ve known her, I would have never taken her to be latino. Anya had dark brown hair that was as much of a mess as Katya’s was. She had white skin and looked to be of some slavic descent. 

Rowan had dark hair and looked to be almost green. He didn’t look too well. I guess the first fresh air in years overstimulated his senses and he bent over to throw up. Though this didn’t dampen his spirits, as usual. He looked up at me and said “Damn, Thomas. Who knew you had such a thick beard. I wish I could grow a beard like that.” 

For some reason, Rowan didn’t seem to have a hair on his face even though he was in his twenties. I guess some guys just can’t grow beards. I pondered this while stroking my thick beard unconsciously. “Come on, don’t rub it in, man.” Rowan said with a disappointed tone. 

“Right.” said the woman who brought us here. “Well we should probably welcome you formally. Congratulations for being the first survivors that we’ve found since the bombs dropped. Welcome to the Pentagon.”

“Which bombs?” I asked before I had a chance to think. 

“I’m sorry, Sir?” the woman asked. “What do you mean?” 

“You said we were the first survivors you found since the bombs dropped. Which bombs?” 

She looked around her as if she was confused. “The bombs that destroyed the world? What other bombs would I mean?” 

“No, the first or the second time.” 

“What do you mean the second time?” She looked puzzled. 

“You know.” said Anya, trying to explain to her. “The bombs that ended the war with the Union and the Federation.” 

“I don’t know what this Federation or this Union is that you speak of. But I mean the bombs that ended the war for the United States. You’re the first people we’ve met from the outside in three generations.” 

“Uh huh.” I said slowly. “And what’s the deal with the death machines marching around outside?” 

“Well it seems that they were programmed to protect this place and everyone inside. They attack anything outside of the walls of the Pentagon but seem to not be hostile towards anyone inside the perimeters. We don’t know much, our grandfathers moved in here after the bombs dropped for shelter and all of the military personnel were gone.” 

“What is this place that makes it so important to the death machines?” I asked her. 

“Well I think this was once an important center for the United States military. So that’s why the death machines are programmed to protect it.” 

“And the German death machines?” I asked. 

“Huh? We haven’t seen any German death machines around here.” 

I pull out the device I pulled off the first death machine we found. “This was in one of the German models. It pointed us towards here.” 

“So that means that there’s still some of them active and trying to find this place. This isn’t good” She had a worried expression on her face. “It looks like this war that plunged the world into nuclear fire seventy five years ago still isn’t over.”


	11. Chapter 11

“Come on, Shiro!” shouted Tai as he jumped on top of a steel beam and walked across it with arms outstretched. The young boy hoped from beam to beam on what remained of the roof of a warehouse.

The warehouse ruins start to rumble underneath Tai’s feet as the boom of heavy metal footsteps approaches slowly. A red light moved up to engulf him in a crimson glow. 

Tai slipped and fell between the beams. He screamed but was only able to fall about ten feet before hitting burgundy colored metal. A great metallic claw grabs him and pulled him forward and Tai stares into the red optic of the thirty foot tall Nesov death machine. “Put me down, Shiro!” the boy said. 

The death machine set him gently on the ground, then stood completely still, staring at Tai. 

That night, Tai gathered what wood he could find and piled it up in the empty warehouse. Shiro ignited it’s arm mounted flamethrower to ignite the wood. Tai was sitting at the fire and talking to Shiro, who was standing next to him, peering into the night for threats. 

“You know, Shiro, I kinda miss Mother and Father. Do you know what happened to them?” 

Shiro gave no reply. 

“Me neither. But you surely must know something, I saw Father working on you all the time in his workshop.” Tai looked at Shiro as if the Nesov death machine would respond with something, but it remained vigilantly silent. 

“When the evil yellow lights came, Father told me to run and said you would protect me, but I haven’t seen him since. I thought he would have come to meet us by now.” 

Tai thought he could see Shiro look down almost as if in despair, but he couldn’t tell for sure. He laid down to go to sleep, but as he put his head down, he could see a pulsating light coming from Shiro’s back. 

“What’s that?” asked Tai. He climbed up on Shiro’s back and looked at the panel on Shiro’s back. It was pulsating with a red glow. 

Tai heard a big crash of waves on the nearby shore and the loud noise caused Shiro to turn towards it, priming it’s shoulder mounted machine gun. 

The red beeping light stopped and Tai felt kinda sad, like he had broken it. As Shiro let its guard down again, it turned back West and he saw the red pulses return, increasing in rapidity as Shiro turned more to the West. 

“Shiro, what is this pointing to?” asked Tai with new interest. Shiro didn’t respond. “In the morning, I’m gonna make you show me where it leads, Shiro. You can’t keep your secrets forever.”


	12. Chapter 12

Anya, Rowan, Katya, and I were taken deeper into the large government building, but before we could go very far, we were scanned for radiation exposure. Anya, Katya, and I were all at relatively low enough levels to be considered safe, but Rowan was found to have radiation sickness.

“I’m sorry sir, but you’ll have to come with me.” Said a man speaking to Rowan. 

“You can’t just take him away like that!” shouted Katya as she tried to keep Rowan from being taken away from the group. 

“Ma’am.” said the man, “This man is very sick. I am only taking him to the sick bay to see if there’s anything we can do to help him.” 

“Calm down, Katya.” I said, grabbing her arm. “If you are worried what they’ll do to him, then go with him, but don’t cause a scene.” I then let go of her arm, allowing her to go to Rowan. 

“Alright, both of you, come with me.” said the man as he led them down a side corridor. 

As they walked off, Anya and I continued onwards, guided by the woman we met at the entrance. We entered a room with a large table with seats surrounding it on all sides. It looked to be a command room of some sort. We were seated at the table and the woman began. 

“You tell me that these death machines have trackers that lead them here.” She said. “Why would they only be coming here now?” 

“I don’t know. We were just wandering to ruins of a city when that thing attacked us.” I said. “Did you guys do anything recently to attract their attention?” 

“Of course not, why would we do anything to attract death machines to come and kill us?” 

“I’m not saying you may have done it on purpose, but…” I paused as I saw something moving in the corner of the room. I looked over and saw what looked to be a machine the size of a large beetle scuttle up the wall. It had blue lenses and didn’t seem to notice we were here. “What is that?” I asked. 

Both Anya and the woman looked over to see it too. “I don’t know.” said the woman. As we all stared at it, it moved to where a broken wire was and started to… fuse it back together. Once it was done, it moved on to another broken wire and did the same. It kept doing this until all the wires in the room were fixed and it made its way back outside. 

“Should we follow it?” asked Anya. The woman nodded without saying a word and we started to move out of the room to follow it but then I saw a security camera on the ceiling move to look at me. I looked back at it but it didn’t move again, it must have been my imagination. 

As we made our way into the hallway, we saw everyone around was looking at more of the mechanical beetles scuttling around, fusing wires together and ignoring everything else. When they were all done, they all moved towards a normal looking wall and entered a little hole in it which then shut behind them. 

As we all watched in amazement, we heard the sound of the little bugs working on more wires until we heard something moving inside of the wall. All of the guards that had weapons instantly raised them, along with Anya and I. 

As we stood there, the noise continued. It sounded like something was ascending, until there was a soft “Ding!” behind the wall. We just looked at each other in confusion until a section of the wall started to slide open to reveal the interior of a metal box filled with… soldiers? 

The soldiers tossed a strange looking grenade into the room and we all dived for cover. When it went off, I couldn’t see or hear anything besides a white ringing in my ears. When I slowly regained my vision, I saw the soldiers taking our weapons away and moving into other rooms. 

I then saw a man in a clean dress suit walk out of the wall with a pistol in his hand and say. “You are all on US government soil, leave or you will be shot.”


End file.
